


An Empty Shell

by BrytteMystere



Category: Cinderella Phenomenon (Visual Novel)
Genre: Based on Waltz's Bad Ending, F/M, SPOILERS FOR WALTZ’S BAD ENDING, The Author Regrets Everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 03:16:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10845360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrytteMystere/pseuds/BrytteMystere
Summary: Varg doesn't need to tell him.Waltz knows he should have acted sooner, and hope is becoming more and more bitter in his tongue.





	An Empty Shell

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so here I say I don’t have time to write fics, and yet… Well. This was dark. But then, all the bloody bad endings were bad. And Waltz’s was, to me, the worst. Because, fair, maybe it didn’t make me cry rivers like Fritz’s or Karma’s or Rumpel’s, or even Rod’s… Mainly because I was too horrified to react at all. “A fate worse than death”, indeed, Dicesuki...

Mayhap Hildyr’s greatest cruelty had been sparing him.

Sparing him, knowing that the woman he loved had lost _everything_ , given up _everything_ , for him and him alone.

Leaving him alive, not even bothering to restrain him, for she had to know that as long as Lucette remained in such a state, he wouldn’t dare to do anything that could put his beloved in danger.

Leaving him alive, as everyone else received painfully abrupt endings, knowing Waltz would not - _could_ not- help them in any way.

Leaving him alive, and letting him _alone_ with the one who had given everything for him. The one he would have given everything for.

Even had he wanted to, he could not have helped them. For all he saw, all he knew, _all he was aware of…_ It was her.

Lucette Riella Britton. Crown Princess of Angielle. His little star. His love.

Waltz Cresswell had heard once that the brightest starts were the ones who faded sooner, and yet… She wasn’t dead, was she? There was still hope.

_… Hope._

It shouldn’t feel as bitter as it did.

But then, it had been three years and regardless of how much he tried to bring her _back_ , Lucette remained trapped by her mother’s very existence. Her sun-like inner fire apparently extinguished, nothing left of the young, bright little star he had once met, nor of the magnificent woman he had fallen in love with. _Still_ was in love with.

Three years, and he had remained unable to break the spell. To bring her back.

To be honest, he had become rather desperate.

And desperate men… Desperate men are prone to horrific mistakes.

* * *

 

It took him a year and a half, to cross the line of no return.

A year and a half, before he _finally, finally, **finally**_ managed to kill Hildyr. For good, this time.

He had taken Lucette and ran, ran, _far, far away_. As far as he could go. With Lucette, and the Crystallum Tenebrarum.

By what he had been able to hear, during some of his food expeditions, the kingdom was in shambles. But then, Hildyr had killed the king even before destroying her daughter, and Rod had died due to his curse soon afterwards.

Ophelia and Emeleigne had been inconsolable, and even if they had been in any position to take the crown, many would have opposed them.

The nobles were, after all, fighting like rabid dogs for it almost from the second Hildyr’s magic started to fade.

All except one, of course.

_‘She’ll come back. She’ll awake… Lucette…’_

Hope tasted bitter, and burned all through his veins.

Three months and even as every other of Hildyr’s magiks had faded, Lucette had not returned to herself.

_‘Is there even anything **left**? Did I act too late?’_

The mere idea was horrifying. Unacceptable.

So he dismissed the thought, and with a deep breath to vainly try to fortify himself, entered the unassuming house.

          “Any change?”

Varg, what remained of the knight who had once sworn his life to the Princess, merely replied with a tired denial.

Once, he would have given a try to sarcasm. Or tried to be vague about it. But it seemed, even the Big Bad Wolf could only endure so much. And Lucette’s condition weighed upon them both.

Kneeling at his princess’ feet, he took her hands on his, and did his best not to flinch when her empty stare fell upon him.

          “It’s time for dinner, love. Are you hungry?”

Her eyes, once so expressive, remained impassive as ever, not a single emotion visible in them or her pale face.

She hadn’t talked on her own volition since her sacrifice, but after Hildyr’s death Lucette had remained perfectly silent, regardless of how much either him or Varg tried to prompt her to do anything at all.

… _Hope_. Lately, it was getting harder and harder to keep its flame going.

Looking to Varg, then, he asked:

          “Has she eaten?”

The knight hadn’t bothered with the mask for years, and yet often Waltz wished he had, because then at least he could pretend more easily he couldn’t see the defeat in his face.

          “Breakfast and lunch, yes. But it’s… It’s getting worse. I had to actually start her on the motions. Three months ago she ate when food was put in front of her.”

 _She’s fading more and more with each passing day_ was left implicit but unsaid.

          “Then it’s time for dinner indeed.”

He couldn’t give up. As stale as hope became by the day, Waltz knew… He knew what Varg considered had to be done.

As much as he knew that he, himself, would be unable to do it.

**Author's Note:**

> Waltz’s Bad Ending remains the most disturbing one to me... The idea is to write a good ending version of this... At some point, hopefully.  
> (And yes I'm bringing this from my Tumblr)


End file.
